Hybrigenics (ALHYG), a bio-pharmaceutical company listed on the Euronext Growth market of Euronext Paris, with a focus on research and development of new anticancer treatments, announces today the management buy-out of Helixio, its business unit dedicated to genomic services based in Clermont-Ferrand, France, by its employees and managers. Financial terms are not disclosed at this stage. Hybrigenics does not retain any stake in Helixio and the two companies are fully independent.

Following the management buy-out one year ago of Hybrigenics’ former subsidiary dedicated to proteomic services, (cf. Hybrigenics’ press release of March 13th, 2017), the sale of Helixio completes the strategic refocusing of Hybrigenics on biopharmaceutical R&D. Hybrigenics’ research program is based on the drug discovery of inhibitors of Ubiquitin-Specific Proteases (USPs), especially USP7, USP8 and USP10, as a new class of anticancer agents. Hybrigenics’ clinical stage orphan drug development program is based on inecalcitol currently being tested in two Phase II studies in acute and chronic myeloid leukemia.

“The good progress, both in France and in the United States, of the Phase II clinical trial of inecalcitol in Acute Myeloid Leukemia, with a total of 68 enrolled patients so far out of the 110 planned, and the recent surge of interest for inhibitors of Ubiquitin-Specific Proteases as potential new anticancer drugs, give credit to Hybrigenics’ strategic move to focus on its R&D programs as a pure therapeutic player,” said Remi Delansorne, Hybrigenics’ CEO.

About Hybrigenics

Hybrigenics (www.hybrigenics.com) is a bio-pharmaceutical company listed (ALHYG) on the Euronext Growth market of Euronext Paris, focusing its internal R&D programs on innovative targets and therapies for the treatment of proliferative diseases.

Hybrigenics’ development program is based on inecalcitol, a vitamin D receptor agonist active by oral administration.
Inecalcitol has been tested in chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients, an indication for which inecalcitol has received orphan drug status in Europe and the United States. Two clinical Phase II studies of inecalcitol are currently ongoing in chronic myeloid leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia. Oral inecalcitol has shown excellent tolerance and strong presumption of efficacy for the first-line treatment of metastastic castrate-resistant prostate cancer in combination with Taxotere®, which is the current gold-standard chemotherapeutic treatment for this in
dication.

Hybrigenics’ research program is exploring the role of enzymes called Ubiquitin-Specific Proteases (USP) in the balance between degradation and recycling of proteins called onco-proteins due to their involvement in various cancers. Hybrigenics is evaluating the interest of inhibitors of USP as anti-cancer drug candidates. Hybrigenics has collaborated with Servier on one particular USP in oncology. In this R&D program, two milestones have been reached and additional milestones may be achieved until registration of a potential drug.

Hybrigenics Pharma Inc., based in Cambridge, Mass., is the U.S. subsidiary of Hybrigenics.